What makes Flyers prospect Michkov a ‘spotlight player’

What makes Flyers prospect Michkov a ‘spotlight player’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

From watching Matvei Michkov firsthand and on video, Brent Flahr knew the talent.

But he didn’t know exactly what was behind the Russian phenom’s transcendent game.

The person behind the player.

When the Flyers hosted the 18-year-old prospect in Voorhees, New Jersey, leading up to the 2023 NHL draft, Flahr, president of hockey operations Keith Jones and general manager Danny Briere were all impressed.

“For a dynamite player, I didn’t know what I was going to get, you hear some of the rumors,” Flahr, the Flyers’ assistant general manager, said about three weeks ago following Day 2 of the draft. “We spent a couple of hours, had lunch, and when he left that day, everybody — Jonesy, Danny and I — felt a real comfort level of the type of kid he is, how driven he is. … Like, he wants to play and he wants to be the best.”

Daniel Bochner would agree. The player development coach for SKA St. Petersburg has worked with Michkov for parts of four years. He’ll be working with the young winger more as Michkov, who fell to the Flyers at No. 7 overall last month, is starting a new three-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, Russia’s top pro league.

“As a teammate, he’s extremely competitive,” Bochner said Wednesday in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “So when you see him in practice, he’s going just as hard as he would in a game, if not harder. Sometimes other players may find that challenging, but it’s part of what drives him. He’s extremely competitive and that shows up all over the place.

“In my experience with him, he has great athletic character and he’s extremely friendly. He’s somebody that actually doesn’t like to be away from the rink too much, he likes to be at the rink, he likes to be practicing. He’s extremely competitive when he’s on the ice, but very friendly when he’s off the ice. Just in…